1st Bonsai attempt

I've been thinking about bonsai for some time--not decorative bonsai, just using those techniques to keep a tree small.

I have a potted grapefruit tree that I started from a seed about five years ago, so I decided to try on that one. This is about the age that most of the sites I found suggested doing the first training, so I figured I might as well.

It has never been repotted and probably hasn't been watered as well as it should have been. Definitely not fertilized--I don't often use fertilizer.

First I cut off all the dead-wood. There wasn't much, but enough to make it difficult to work with the tree as a whole.

Then I cut the tree down to the point that I could actually work with it before I pulled it out of its pot.

It was seriously root-bound. I'm surprised that the roots weren't coming out of the holes.

It took a lot of work and a water bath to get most of the compacted soil out of the roots. The tap root had twisted itself up in a knot, but I got as close as possible and got it out of there.

I cleaned out the root mass, got rid of the very long, stringy roots, and trimmed the smaller roots inside so that there's room for soil in there.

I mixed the existing soil with composted steer manure (no, it doesn't stink) and put it back in its pot, spreading the roots out over the surface before I put the last third of the dirt back in.

The existing root-mass is smaller than I expected, so I did some more trimming after I had it settled back in its pot. Here's the before and after.

And no, that picture wasn't taken in 2007--I just don't bother to reset the clock on my camera every time I change batteries.

I have an apricot seedling I want to bonsai, but the information I found said it needs to be a minimum of two years old...By that time it will be five feet tall, so I keep looking for other information.

My Hoop House Broke

There's been a lot of wind here in the last week. It generally comes down from the mountains (east) like this in early spring, round about the beginning of April. Instead it comes at the beginning of February.

So I went out this morning to check my hoop houses and this is what I found.

The plastic had split. When I went out yesterday there was the beginning of a small tear (about a foot long) and I taped it up, but the wind came again last night and used the edge of the tape (of all things!) to create a rip that went the full length of the hoop house.

So the plastic is drying out (it stays pretty wet in there) and I'm considering what to do now. I have plenty of small covers--technically I could put one over each of the plants and they might survive till spring. That hoop house is full of chinese cabbage, which I've never grown before, so I don't know how well it handles the cold.

On the other hand, I could either cut a new piece of plastic and discard the old one (which I do not want to do) or tape up the old one and hope it doesn't split again.

Decisions, decisions...

The other hoop house has the lettuce and spinach, and shows no sign of weakness. Note to self: Next time, buy higher quality plastic. :)

GMO's (Part 4--the future)

Call me odd, but I don't own any part of this planet. I hold it as a responsibility, a gift and a trust, for the children of the future. Everything I do must be coached in those terms.

My personal and political choices, my views and beliefs, my business practices and interests, all affect this world. I cannot make a major corporation or a government change it's patterns of behavior. I can't force anyone to do what I think is right. Nor should I.

What I can do, I will.

I will be vocal about things that affect this world so that the children are left with good choices and healthy bodies. I will make as small a mark as possible, taking into consideration that I still need to live. Because I believe, strongly, that at the end of my life I will be held accountable for this stewardship.

The future is not to be taken lightly. I will not be here, but this does not mean I have any less responsibility for the results of my choices. Some people believe that what they do in this life ends with them and the future is none of their concern.

Fifty or one hundred years from now, will the seed stocks all be purchased from international corporations with patented gene complexes? I hope not. Will all choice of what we eat be gone, given over to those who are making a profit off of it? I hope not.

Whether GMO's are eventually proven to be safe or not, we still have to take into consideration the end result of the current trends. The corporations want their profit, and the government wants to continue collecting taxes on that profit. If the corporations are put ahead of the people, or even ahead of the will of the people, there will come a time when we have no more control. The control will be all in the hands of those who decide what we eat, what we wear, how we live. If we give up the right to decide a simple matter of labeling, it gives more power to those who want our money without accountability.

So do we allow the mega corporations to do as they please with our food supply?

They want to take our choices away, because face it--people with knowledge and choices are not going to mindlessly give all their food money to one mega corporation, and swallow the massive price increases that come with lack of competition.

Or maybe they will. I hope not.

My garlic is sprouting!

Yes, another garlic post (ad nauseum).

I have a serious problem with this stuff. Either I have too little or too much. Still, much better to have too much than too little.

In the last few (say, five or ten) years I've started planting garlic. I tried growing it inside, but that didn't work well. Instead I save the largest cloves and plant 120 + outside each fall to grow through the winter. It's harvested in late June or early July.

So a few days ago I looked at my stored garlic and it was sprouting! In January?!

Good grief.

No one's been sick this year (at least not the kind of sick that garlic can help) and we haven't been cooking nearly as much. About once a month I sit down at the kitchen table and crush up a bunch of garlic in olive oil, then we cook with that. Simple and quick, still fresh, and SOOOO good.

So I have several pounds of garlic that are starting to sprout. I took a bunch of it to church to give away and I'm trying neighbors and friends, but I still have a lot. I'll keep searching out the sprouts and drying/crushing/giving them away.

I went looking online for ways to keep the stuff from sprouting, but apparently once garlic decides it's time to sprout nothing short of cooking or freezing will stop it.

One site said to keep it between 40 and 60 degrees, saying that temps lower than this will encourage sprouting and higher temps will delay spring sprouting. Nope. Sorry. Wrong answer. We keep our house at 68-72 degrees and it still starts sprouting in January.

Another site said keep it in the dark, but I've tried that as well with no luck.

I think the best answer was probably "There's really no way to do this, short of keeping the temperature at precisely 32 degrees, and even that is questionable." :)

My garlic outside is visible through six inches of snow, so obviously it's doing well. In spite of the "too much garlic" problem, I'm looking forward to my spring harvest.

Capsiacin made with vinegar

Capsiacin is a pure crystaline extract taken from plants in the capsicum family--otherwise known as peppers. Part of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) there are a number of different kinds of peppers but all have some level of capsiacin. It's this chemical that gives peppers their heat and unique flavor.

Capsiacin has been shown to be a potent painkiller, both taken internally and rubbed in topically. Recently it has also been used (on an experimental basis) for painkilling after surgery. The numbness continues for up to two weeks and the capsiacin also aids in healing.

This is definitely something I want in my emergency first aid kit.

I found a post on the forums at Gardenweb about creating pure capsiacin. To get the crystals would take more time and effort than I want to expend, so I'm working on extracting the capsiacin gel or oil.

The information I found all indicates to use 190 proof alcohol, which is dangerous, flammable, and expensive. Since many herbal mixtures will work with vinegar when alcohol is called for (and I have vinegar sitting around the house) I decided to use vinegar.

I didn't use the hottest peppers. I had the seeds, so I grew an heirloom habanero pepper this year. I pulled off the fruit, dried it thoroughly, crushed it small and poured vinegar over it.

I ran the mash through twice, and ended up with this. This is placed on top of a candle warmer so you can see the color.

Almost a full quart of liquid. This is after several filterings--one through paper napkins, one through fabric, then I let it settle and poured off the clear liquid from the top. I started with about a quart and a half. There was that much gunk mixed in with the liquid.

11/14/2014

This next picture is after three or four days of evaporation. Since it's cold outside and I'm not working with toxic chemicals I have it in a crock pot with water up to the evaporation line.

There is some settling even now. As the liquid evaporates I am seeing granules separating out at the bottom of the bottle. I'm not sure what they are yet--they may be capsiacin granules, or they may be leftovers from the filtering process that are starting to coagulate.

11/17/2014

When it started to get thick I poured it in a pint jar. This stuff has a life of its own. There's about a half inch of black goo at the bottom of the jar. No light gets through, it's like tar. It crawls up the glass and clings.

That edge you see isn't the level of the goo, it's the stains on the glass. I used a toothpick and touched it to my tongue, and my tongue is still burning.

I think this experiment has been a qualified success. I found a smaller jar to put the stuff in, a glass jar with a glass lid. It's going in my emergency kit with a bottle of olive oil and a handful of latex gloves. :)

Jerusalem Artichoke

Helianthus Tuberosus

I am cooking with Jerusalem artichoke for the first time. One of my family members has high cholesterol and was told he shouldn't eat potatoes. Jerusalem artichoke is a possible substitute, since potatoes form a major part of our diet.

The Jerusalem artichoke is not an artichoke, nor does it have any connection to Jerusalem. It's actually a variety of sunflower (which makes me wonder about the roots of the sunflowers growing in our yard). Since it has an invasive habit, I planted it in a container. That's probably why I didn't get as large a crop as I expected. The information I found indicated that the tubers could be harvested throughout the season, but each time I dug down around the plant I found (at best) a few rhizomes approximately the thickness of my smallest finger. When I dug it up this morning, all the tubers were directly under the main plant. We got a couple of pounds of small tubers, most of them between an inch and an inch and a half in diameter. Again, I think that was because it was in a small, isolated space and couldn't spread out.

In herbalism, Jerusalem artichokes are used as a supplementary pre-biotic, helping to balance the bacteria levels in the intestines. Instead of traditional starches, they have a starch called inulin (not to be confused with insulin) which doesn't break down readily and is not passed through into the bloodstream. They have very little effect on blood sugar, unlike traditional potatoes, and can be used to partially regulate blood sugar levels in diabetics.

According to hearsay, they can be used in anything that requires potatoes. I found that they slice easily, in perfect thin slices, where potatoes would tend to break or shear. One source said they can be used raw (rather like water chestnuts) in salads. Whether or not they should be peeled is a matter of choice, but their skins are thin and barely visible. The tubers are wrinkled and bubbled, making removal of the skins into more of a chore than I'm willing to take on.

I made hash-browns with them as a test. They have a nutty, sweet taste and a texture similar to potatoes but slightly more crunchy. They also stuck to my teeth like glue and I spent the next half hour prying them loose.

I got ambivalent reactions from family members. The taste would certainly take some getting used to. Not sure yet whether they would be worthwhile as a crop in the future. I'm guessing not, but I'll leave it open for discussion.

GMO's (Part 3--Environment)

One of the larger documented problems with GMO's (Genetically Modified foods) is pollen drift. Time after time, conventional crops have been found to be contaminated with patented gene complexes. A number of times to my knowledge, the farmers in question have been slapped with lawsuits because they didn't "rent" the rights to grow the genetically modified versions, even though they had no idea that what they were growing was a patented version.

Time after time, it has been proven that the genetically modified plants happened because of pollen drift--the pollen from genetically modified fields drifting over to a traditional crop. If this happens in an area where seed crops are being planted, the seeds will include the patented gene modifications. If the farmer keeps part of his crop to replant (which was traditional in the early 20th century) then he's keeping genetically modified seeds.

A number of times, a gene modification has been traced back to a farmer who had no idea he was planting something he shouldn't--and the gene modifications in question were never cleared by the FDA. The seed stocks were supposed to be destroyed. And yet, somehow the genes ended up being in some farmer's crop in the middle of nowhere.

Coincidence? Genetic drift?

So let's take this a step further. Many common food crops have wild relatives. Like the beefalo (a buffalo/beef mix), even if the genetic material doesn't result in a true cross the genes are still there.

When you look at any wild environment, it's built on an extremely delicate balance. Let once piece of that environment disappear, the whole thing might collapse.

So let's set up a scenario. A wheat field planted with a genetically modified variety has a prevailing wind toward a wild area with various native grasses closely related to wheat. The wheat includes a terminator gene which doesn't allow for viable seeds. This is so that the seed provider doesn't need to worry about seed "piracy," or the farmer keeping seed without permission.

The wheat blooms and the pollen blows toward the grasslands. It pollinates several close relatives of the wheat. Because of the differences the genes are not fully integrated--the grass is visibly the same as before.

But now it carries the terminator gene. A few generations down the road (plant generations) the terminator gene activates and all the grass dies. The animals and birds that usually eat the seeds have nothing to eat and either leave or die. The animals that usually eat those animals also leave or die. The process of grass mutation continues until all the grass is dead. Meanwhile, the gene complexes have migrated even further and are now working on a wetland preserve about half a mile away.

The toxins built into the altered wheat have also migrated to the wild grass. The insects the toxins are designed to defend against have gained a level of immunity, increasing risk to the traditional crops in the area.

Five or ten or twenty years down the road, people are scratching their heads and demanding to know who should be held responsible. The FDA that approved the strains? The companies that made and marketed the gene complexes? The farmers? The EPA? Everyone who made the decision is now safely retired or dead.

A far-fetched scenario, perhaps, but definitely possible. So do we allow the risk for a possible immediate gain? Or do we remove the risk and never know if it would have happened?

Personally I'd prefer the latter.

Part 4